


Touch

by orphan_account



Category: Rooster Teeth/Achievement Hunter RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Fake AH Crew, M/M, Soulmates, Taste!AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-04
Updated: 2020-03-04
Packaged: 2021-03-01 01:06:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,575
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23016730
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Ryan always remembered how sweet his childhood was. Tastes he couldn’t quite pin down, food that was foreign to his mouth. Everything tasted like sugar, even when he was eating his meals there was an underlying taste of chocolate orange or just pure sugar. At first, he thought he was broken, that everything he tasted would always be sweet. Even when he wasn’t eating there was this lingering sugar that coated his tongue.orTastes transcend physical borders.
Relationships: Gavin Free/Ryan Haywood
Comments: 13
Kudos: 103





	Touch

Life is full of flavour was one of the first things that Gavin had learnt. As a child, he could sit on the swings on his school playground and taste fresh peaches, in the evening he would lay on his bed and salivate over the taste of rich chocolate. His world revolved around food, he never knew what was happening when his mouth would burst, just knew that it turned his stomach funny and brain fuzzy. 

He got a talk about soulmates when he was about to leave for Secondary, all the different varieties of marks. People who couldn’t see colours, people with first words marked on them from a certain date, then there were the rare types. People who could share their tastes. It was believed they were the rarest type, the ones that held the strongest bonds. People wrote it off as a simple rumour, just people thinking something’s special if it’s rare. Gavin liked to think he and his soulmate were stronger than others, even if they didn’t know each other. 

\-- -- -- 

Ryan always remembered how sweet his childhood was. Tastes he couldn’t quite pin down, food that was foreign to his mouth. Everything tasted like sugar, even when he was eating his meals there was an underlying taste of chocolate orange or just pure sugar. At first, he thought he was broken, that everything he tasted would always be sweet. Even when he wasn’t eating there was this lingering sugar that coated his tongue. 

It was when he asked his parents what was wrong with him that he found out what was wrong. He wasn’t broken, just that there was some other person out there who was connected to him spiritually. He didn’t like the word soulmate though, it seemed too friendly to his young ears, this person wasn’t destined to be just his friend. 

He’d eventually settled on the term ‘honey’ to describe them. He often woke up hoping they were as sweet as their mouth was. 

\-- -- -- 

As Gavin grew older, the tastes evolved. They switched from the dark chocolate as he slept to beef slathered in cheese. They grew more and more savoury. Gavin had taken a different route. His diet was poor, sweets and snacks with no meals in between. He’d be awake at 2 am eating a tub of ice cream and wondering what his soulmate must think of him. Maybe his soulmate thought he was just an insomniac, maybe he thought about him being a broke uni student. He was neither, just a man living off freelance computer work with hours that never seemed to end. 

Then he hit his early 20s. Where the work got more unsavoury, where the lines of legality blurred. His schedule had some normality to it then, even if he was essentially being nocturnal. Schematics, system passcodes, disabling security were all he did for the next few years. No crew, just a guy wanting money to afford to live.

The jobs were all a blur back then, each crew needed something, each crew had a contact that led them to him. No one cared for his name or his face, just his skills and his price. He worked anonymously for so long, he went by various pseudonyms. He didn’t want to be pinned down to anything he was doing. It was when he met Burnie that his security wavered. His little deeds grew. It was when he met Burnie that everything sparked a bit more adventure. 

\-- -- -- 

When Ryan first met Burnie, he was working against him. A hit. His mouth was salivating at the taste of raspberries and cream yet he was still determined. He had been ordered to hit a middle man, a negotiator for all the crews beneath him. He was shady, loved to mark the price up and pocket the extra that Burnie hadn’t asked for. He got found out, no one major enough to cause a war but still significant to mess with their profits if everything wasn’t ended. 

Ryan met Burnie after he’d slit someone’s throat, an employee’s throat at that. He was impressed, no blood on himself, a clean slit with minimal splatter. The first time Ryan met Burnie he should’ve died, should’ve been shot and been disposed of. 

The first time Ryan met Burnie, he was offered a job instead. 

\-- -- -- 

Gavin joined the Fakes when he was 26. He rooted his life up and moved across the Atlantic. They were strange, he’d not lived with someone since he’d moved out of his parents’ house and didn’t really know how to deal with going from living alone to living with 5 other people. 

He was still a night owl. Letting his room glow with the light of his laptop, the only sounds being the whirring of his cooling fan and the clacking of his keyboard. He preferred the dead of night, where people didn’t see what he was doing. 

Some days he’d wake up at 6 am, the feeling of bitter coffee awakening him from a slumber he’d barely entered. The taste hitting his core before his brain could register what was going on. There were times when he could feel the heat of the coffee, scalding his mouth without warning. He hated those days the most when he was forced awake after barely passing out to the feeling of pure flame encompassing his mouth. 

He’d retaliate. Eat sour cream and onion pringles at ridiculous hours, chase everything he ate with Dr Pepper or Red Bull. He let the flavours clash like a disgusting cocktail. He hoped, desperate for a rude awakening like he was often given. 

It was the nights when he shoved his face with junk that he wondered what it would be like to just know his soulmate. 

\-- -- --

Ryan was annoyed. Scrap that, he was very annoyed. He’d been trying to sleep since 12 but his mouth tasted like a sewer and it didn't seem to stop. He’d tried mints, bananas, oranges, everything he could think of to get the taste to disappear and all it did was backfire horribly. 

He eventually went back into the penthouse kitchen, he needed water and hopefully, Jack’s spearmint gum would be on the counter or at least in their living space somewhere. 

The second he took a drink of water his mouth got hit with Dr Pepper. It was 3 am, not only too early for something that sugary but just such a disgusting drink he felt like he would throw up. He never normally expressed his outrage, he let his rage build up until he needed to shoot a bullet between someone’s eyes. A therapy that he was essentially paid for, even if a very unethical form of it. But this time, he couldn't hold it in. He was so sick of how gross his soulmate was, his mouth felt like it was drowning in golden syrup, he was being consumed by sugar that he wasn't even eating. It was awful. 

He yelled. He never yelled. Not even at acceptable times to yell, he was normally calm and collected. Let the mask cover his emotions but this felt like torture to him. 

“Who in their right god damn fucking mind is drinking Dr Pepper at bullshit o’clock in the morning?!” Echoed around the penthouse. Loud enough for some people to groan and tell him to be quiet, not quite loud enough to cover up the choking and bird noises coming from Gavin’s room. 

He walked slowly, let his footsteps thump across the floor. When he reached Gavin’s room he didn't bother knocking, just threw the door open to see Gavin sitting in a circle of trash with a Dr Pepper in his hands. 

“For the love of God, go to sleep,” Ryan said when he took in how awful the room was. The lights were completely off, Gavin's laptop screen was the dimmest it could be. There was a circle of empty wrappers and packets around where he sat cross-legged. His curtains were completely shut. It didn't feel like a bedroom, it felt like a nest. 

“Feel like there’s more important things to worry about than sleep right now,” Gavin replied. His voice quivered. His nerves were getting to him. 

“Later, go to sleep,” He demanded before leaving. 

His heart was beating out his chest, he didn't want to admit that there was something blooming inside of him - a feeling he hadn't felt in years. He didn't want to admit that it felt nice to feel his heart in his throat again. 

\-- -- -- 

At 2 in the afternoon, they both left their rooms. The others had all left. Jack needed shirts, Geoff and Michael needed to case somewhere, Jeremy wanted to see how much it was to get his new monster truck wrapped. 

The pair sat together in silence for a while, not knowing where to start. Ryan stared at the dregs in his coffee cup, Gavin’s fingers tapped along the rim of his Red Bull can, the only noise that could be heard in the penthouse. 

They didn't talk when Gavin’s body moved closer to Ryan’s. They didn't talk when Ryan’s arm ended up wrapped around Gavin’s shoulder. They didn't talk when Gavin’s head ended up on his shoulder. 

There were too many things unspoken to be left alone, decisions that needed to be made. For now, they sat alone together in dead silence. The only thing they needed right now was each other’s touch. 

**Author's Note:**

> Make sure to tune in at the same time on Sunday (hopefully) for Be Here (Mavin.) 
> 
> Thanks for reading! Comments and kudos are appreciated as always and please follow my tumblr @goldenboy-gav :)


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